I am very sorry we have been delayed, by this accident. Let us proceed. Never has there been known, among men, a more universal diffusion of such a little modicum of knowledge. The knowledge of the materia medica and of pathology, what there was of it, seems to have been held, by the Babylonians, as tenants in common, and upon the Agrarian principle--every man and woman had an equal share of it. Such, according to John Jahn, Professor of Orientals in Vienna, was the state of therapeutics, in Babylon. The Egyptians carried their sick into the temples of Serapis--the Greeks to those of Æsculapius. Written receipts were preserved there, for the cure of different diseases. Professor Jahn certainly seems disposed to make the most of the knowledge of physic and surgery, among the Israelites. He says they had "_some acquaintance with chirurgical operations_." In support of this opinion, he refers to the rite of circumcision, and to--nothing else. He also says, that it is evident "_physicians sometimes undertook to exercise their skill, in removing diseases of an internal nature_." If the reader is good at conundrums, will he be so obliging as to _guess_, upon what evidence the worthy professor grounds this assertion? I perceive he gives it up--Well--on Samuel I. xvi. 16. And what sayeth Samuel?--"And Saul's servants said unto him, behold now an evil spirit from God troubleth thee. Let our Lord now command thy servants, which are before thee, to seek out a man, who is a cunning player on a harp: and it shall come to pass, when the evil spirit from God is upon thee, that he shall play with his hand, and thou shalt be well." This, reduced into plain language, is simply this--Saul's servants took the liberty of telling his majesty, that the devil was in him, and he had better have a little music. Accordingly, David was called in--_as a physician_, according to Jahn--and drove the devil out of Saul, by playing on his Jews'-harp. Jahn also informs us, and the Bible did before, that the art of healing was committed to the priests, who were specially bound, by law, "_to take cognizance of leprosies_." There were, as he admits, other _physicians_, probably of little note. _The priests_ were the regular, legalized faculty. On this ground, we can explain the severe reproach, cast upon Asa, who, when he had the gout, "_sought not the Lord but to the physician_:" that is, he did not seek the Lord, in prayer, through the intermediation of the regular faculty, the priests.